Powerful blending. Automatically tracks nutrition. Lots of included recipes and ability to create your own. Works with Apple Health.

Cons

Included recipes call for proprietary protein powder. Few integrations with other third-party health apps.

Bottom Line

The NutriBullet Balance is a powerful connected blender that makes it easy to track your nutritional intake on your phone.

Between measuring ingredients and logging nutrition facts, calorie counting is one of the most painful parts of any diet or training plan. The NutriBullet Balance is a smart blender that takes some of the tedium out of getting healthy. It's equipped with a weight sensor that, with the help of an app on your phone, lets you automatically measure and log the nutritional value of any smoothie, juice, soup, or anything else you blend with it. It would be nice if it integrated with more third-party health apps, especially for $179.99, but the Balance is a great addition to any smart kitchen, especially for health and fitness nuts.

Not Your Average Blender

The Balance doesn't look like your typical pitcher blender. It's much smaller and the cup is sort of shaped like a bullet (hence the name). The Balance consists of three parts: a base, a removable screw-top blade, and a clear cup. Fully assembled, it measures 15.8 by 7.4 by 14.4 inches (HWD) and weighs 9.8 pounds. Out of the box, it also comes with two 32-ounce cups, two flip-top to-go lids, and two lip rings for when the cups are not in use.

The base is mostly black, with a silver rim up top. There's a NutriBullet logo in the center, and a stainless steel button surrounded by an LED ring near the bottom. Underneath the base are four rubber feet to prevent slippage when the blender is in use. Inside is a 1,200-watt motor and a smart scale.

The smart scale and companion app are what set the Balance apart from other blenders. The NutriBullet app (available for Android and iOS) is pretty straightforward. The dashboard shows you a breakdown of all the calories, protein, fat, carbs, sugar, and fiber you've ingested for the day, or over a seven-day period. If you scroll down, you can browse through helpful video tutorials, recipes you've created or recently made, and suggested recipes based on your preferences. Also at the bottom of the screen are shortcuts to Recipe, Pantry, Shopping List, and Profile menus.

The Recipes menu is exactly what it sounds like. You can sort through dozens of recipes by your own dietary needs or categories. There's also an option to create your own recipe from scratch. There's plenty of variety among the included options, though most call for NutriBullet's proprietary protein blends or various powders, which can get annoying, as you can't skip them when weighing your ingredients (more on that in the next section).

The Pantry tab is sort of like your nutrition database. The app already has a lot of the nutrition facts for most common smoothie, juice, or soup ingredients preloaded. But if you like to experiment with more obscure supplements, like psyllium powder, you can manually add them here. The Shopping List, meanwhile, is where you can keep track of the ingredients you need to buy or already have.

Lastly, the Profile tab is where you can create an account and tweak your settings. It's also where you can establish your dietary preferences and wellness goals, such as gluten-free, weight loss, or low carb.

Powerful Blending, Smart Nutrition

Pairing the blender with your smartphone is easy. All you have to do is plug it in and wait for the LED ring to blink blue three times. After that, download the NutriBullet app, go into your phone's Bluetooth settings, and select the blender from the list.

To test the Balance, I tried making both an included recipe and creating my own. After setting my dietary preferences—no dairy—I decided to try making the Apple Avocado Avalanche smoothie. Once you select a recipe, the app gives you a list of required ingredients; you can also hit the Nutrition tab to look at the overall breakdown.

After I assembled the ingredients, all I had to do was hit the Go Blend button and place the bullet cup on the weight sensor. From there, I added each individual ingredient and kept an eye on the app to see when the proper amount had been added (which reminds me of the Perfect Bake Pro). All you have to do is add each ingredient until the visual marker fills up and the app chimes. It's helpful that you can see the exact amount and how many calories are being added at a given moment. But as mentioned earlier, you can't simply skip ingredients in any of the included recipes, like the NutriBullet Protein Blend. To get around it, I just added more of the other ingredients.

After I was done adding everything, I scrolled up to the blend button. Once I hit the button in the app, all I had to do was sit back as it started blending the ingredients together. I was impressed with the results, as I added fairly large chunks of fruit and ice without breaking them down. The final smoothie was, for lack of a better word, very smooth. I'm not a fan of pulp or chunks, so I quite enjoyed it.

That said, it still takes some time to monitor how much of each ingredient you're adding. If you're pressed for time in the morning and want your breakfast smoothie ready, it's probably a good idea to make it the night before. Also, while the Balance is more than enough for a single or two-person household, you may not be able to blend up a smoothie for your entire family. Each cup holds a maximum of 32 ounces, which I found was enough for two people with a little leftover. If you're looking to mix up a healthy breakfast for a larger family, you'll have to factor in the extra time needed.

Creating your own recipe is also easy. You just hit the Add Ingredient button and the app will automatically record the exact amount you use. It will also show you the number of calories and the overall nutrient breakdown for each ingredient. I created a few different smoothies using various items from my pantry and then saved the recipes for the ones I liked.

As for tracking how much you consume, you can either log the entire cup or measure a portion using the base's scale. While it was nice to see the information automatically logged in the NutriBullet app, I tend to regularly use a number of different health and fitness apps. The NutriBullet can sync with Apple Health, but it would be nice to see more third-party integration, or the ability to export your data to use in another app.

A Unique Blender for Self-Quantifiers

Whether you're trying to bulk up, slim down, or just watch your intake, the NutriBullet Balance is an excellent smart blender. Not only is it powerful, it takes a lot of the guesswork out of calorie counting and caters to many different dietary restrictions and wellness goals. At $180, it's not exactly cheap (a regular NutriBullet goes for $60), but it costs less than some of the super-premium, non-connected blenders out there. That makes it a good choice for athletes, serious dieters, or anyone in need of closely monitoring their nutritional intake.

About the Author

Victoria Song is the wearables and smart home analyst at PCMag. Since graduating from Temple University?s Japan Campus in 2010, she's been found reporting and editing in every corner of the newsroom at The ACCJ Journal, The Japan News, and New York bureau of The Yomiuri Shimbun. In her spare time, she bankrupts herself going to theater, buying expa... See Full Bio

NutriBullet Balance

NutriBullet Balance

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